The present invention relates to a radioimmunoassay for clinical or experimental testing for the presence of and quantitation of bupropion [(.+-.)-2-tert-butylamino-3'-chloropropiophenone], a pharmacologically active antidepressant compound, in biological fluids, including especially human sera or plasma.
The radioimmunoassay technique is finding increasing application for quantitation of drugs in biological fluids. Monitoring of plasma concentrations of drugs enables more precise dose administration to ensure efficacy. In the hospital laboratory setting, specific radioimmunoassay methods can offer considerable advantages such as improved sensitivity and specificity and, particularly, greater speed and sample capacity, over the generally more laborious methods of gas chromatography or thin-layer chromatography.
Accordingly, it is a purpose of the present invention to provide a radioimmunoassay procedure to determine the presence and concentration of bupropion in biological fluids, especially human sera or plasma.
It is another purpose of the invention to provide suitable radiolabeled agents for use in the radioimmunoassay.
It is another purpose of the invention to provide antibodies directed against bupropion also referred to as bupropion-specific antisera and as anti-bupropion sera. In this regard, it is a further purpose of the present invention to provide suitable immunogens for use to raise bupropion-specific antisera, and to provide methods suitable for raising such antisera.
Further purposes appear in the specification and in the claims.
The radioimmunoassay of the present invention is based on competition between bupropion and a fixed quantity of a distinguishable competitor of bupropion for a limited number of binding sites on bupropion-specific antibodies. The distinguishable competitor is preferably a labeled compound, such as a compound labeled with a radioactive isotope ("radiolabeled").
The drug and its radiolabeled competitor are added to the antibodies and the reaction mixture is allowed to equilibrate. When the antibody-bound portion is separated from the free drug and free radiolabeled competitor, then the amount of radioactivity present in the antibody-bound portion will be inversely related to the quantity of unlabeled drug originally added to the reaction mixture. Thus, the greater the amount of unlabeled drug added, the less radiolabeled competitor will be bound to the antibodies. Conversely, the amount of radioactivity present in the reaction mixture from which the antibody-bound portion has been removed will be directly related to the quantity of unlabeled drug originally added to the reaction mixture; i.e., the greater the amount of unlabeled drug added, the more radiolabeled competitor will remain in the reaction mixture from which the antibody-bound portion has been removed.
A standard curve can be produced by employing a range of known concentrations of unlabeled drug in a series of reaction mixtures while holding constant the amount of antibody and radiolabeled competitor employed. The standard curve allows the concentration of drug in an unknown sample to be interpolated from the amount of radioactivity present in the antibody-bound portion of the equilibrated reaction mixture to which it was added.
Thus, it can be seen that the radioimmunoassay of the present invention requires two principal reagents other than the unknown sample of biological fluid to be assayed. These are the radiolabeled competitor of the drug to be assayed, bupropion, and a bupropion-specific antiserum.